Nutter raised $7.9 million for campaign

By Marcia Gelbart, Inquirer Staff Writer

The final numbers are in: Michael Nutter raised $7.9 million for the privilege, as of Jan. 7, of becoming Philadelphia's next mayor.

By contrast, his GOP opponent-in-name-only, Al Taubenberger, looked to have set a record low, bringing in a mere $157,177 - not much more than Nutter will earn in his first year as mayor.

Campaign finance reports filed yesterday provided the last pieces of how many total dollars were raised and spent in the primary and general mayoral races.

"I exceeded my expectations when we went over a million dollars," Nutter said last night from New York City, where beginning today he will attend a series of receptions at the annual weekend gathering of political officials, known as the Pennsylvania Society.

The reports show Nutter raked in about $3.2 million of his total in the months following the May primary, when he was already widely considered the front-runner.

It's little surprise, then, that Nutter spent less than half as much in his general election campaign against Taubenberger as he did in his primary race against four Democratic rivals.

In all, he spent $6.8 million, and as of Nov. 26 had $1.4 million remaining in the bank.

Taubenberger, who has returned to his job as president of the Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, ended the campaign with $7,141 on hand.